A painting from 1887 depicting a child being taught about the "lost" province of Alsace-Lorraine
in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War
that is depicted in the colour black on a map of France.

Irredentism
(from Italianirredento
for "unredeemed") is any political or popular movement intended to reclaim and reoccupy a lost homeland. As such irredentism tries to justify its territorial claims on the basis of (real or imagined) historic and/or ethnic affiliations. It is often advocated by nationalist
and pan-nationalist
movements and has been a feature of identity politics,
cultural
and political geography.

An area that may be subjected to a potential claim is sometimes called an
irredenta. Not all irredentas are necessarily involved in irredentism.[1]

A common way to express a claim to adjacent territories on the grounds of historical or ethnic association is by using the epithet "Greater" before the country name. This conveys the image of national territory at its maximum conceivable extent with the country "proper" at its core. The use of "Greater" does not always convey an irredentistic meaning.

During the
unification of Germany, the term
Großdeutschland
(or greater Germany) referred to a possible German nation consisting of the states that later comprised the Second German Empire and
Austria. The term lesser
Germany, or small Germany, or Kleindeutschland, referred to a possible German state without Austria. The term was also used by Germans referring to Greater Germany, a state consisting of pre-World War I Germany, Austria and the
Sudetenland.

The
Afghan
border with Pakistan, known as the
Durand Line, was agreed to by Afghanistan and British India in 1893. The
Pashtun
tribes inhabiting the border areas were divided between what have become two nations; Afghanistan never accepted the still-porous border and clashes broke out in the 1950s and 1960s between Afghanistan and Pakistan over the issue. All Afghan governments of the past century have declared, with varying intensity, a long-term goal of re-uniting all Pashtun-dominated areas under Afghan rule.[2][3]

The Argentine Nation ratifies its legitimate and non-prescribing sovereignty over the Malvinas, Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur Islands and over the corresponding maritime and insular zones, as they are an integral part of the National territory.

The recovery of these territories and the full exercise of sovereignty, respecting the way of life for its inhabitants and according to the principles of international law, constitute a permanent and unwavering goal of the Argentine people.

The 2009 constitution of
Bolivia
states that the country has an unrenounceable right over the territory that gives it access to the Pacific Ocean
and its maritime space.[7]
This is understood as territory that Bolivia and Peru ceded to Chile after the War of the Pacific, which left Bolivia as a
landlocked
country.

The Government of the Republic of China formerly administered both mainland China and Taiwan; the government has been administering only Taiwan since its defeat in the
Chinese Civil War
by the armed forces of the Communist Party of China. While the official name of the state remains 'Republic of China', the country is commonly called 'Taiwan', since Taiwan makes up 99% of the controlled territory of the ROC.

Article 4 of the
Constitution of the Republic of China
originally stated that "[t]he territory of the Republic of China within its existing national boundaries shall not be altered except by a resolution of the National Assembly". Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Government of the Republic of China on Taiwan maintained itself to be the legitimate ruler of Mainland China as well. As part of its current policy continuing of the 'status quo', the ROC has not renounced claims over the territories currently controlled by the People's Republic of China,
Mongolia,
Russia,
Burma
and some Central Asian
states. However, Taiwan does not actively pursue these claims in practice; the remaining claims that Taiwan is actively seeking are the Senkaku Islands, whose sovereignty is also asserted by
Japan
and the PRC; Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands
in South China Sea, with multiple claimants.

Article 1 of the Constitution of the Union of the
Comoros
begins: "The Union of the Comoros is a republic, composed of the autonomous islands of Mohéli,
Mayotte,
Anjouan, and
Grande Comore." Mayotte, geographically a part of the Comoro Islands, was the only island of the four to vote against independence from France (independence losing 37%–63%) in the referendum held December 22, 1974. The total vote was 94%–5% in favor of independence. Mayotte is currently a department of the French Republic.[9][10]

The region of
Kashmir
in northwestern India has been the issue of a territorial dispute
between India and Pakistan since 1947. Multiple wars have been fought over the issue, the first one immediately upon independence and partition in 1947 itself. To stave off a Pakistani and tribal invasion, MaharajaHari Singh
of the princely state
of Jammu and Kashmir
signed the instrument of accession
with India. Kashmir has remained divided in three parts, administered by India, Pakistan and the People's Republic of China, since then. However, on the basis of the instrument of accession, India continues to claim the entire Kashmir region as its integral part. All modern Indian political parties support the return of the entirety of Kashmir to India, and all official maps of India show the entire
Jammu and Kashmir
state (including parts under Pakistani or Chinese administration after 1947) as an integral part of India.

The idea of uniting former British and Dutch colonial possessions in Southeast Asia actually has its roots in the early 20th century, as the concept of Greater Malay (Melayu Raya) was coined in
British Malaya
espoused by students and graduates of Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers
in the late 1920s.[14]
Some of political figures in Indonesia including Muhammad Yamin
and Sukarno
revived the idea in the 1950s and named the political union concept as Greater Indonesia.

The nation state of Israel was established in in 1948. The UNGA passed a non-binding recommendation partitioning Palestine, however the UN Security Council declined to implement it, deciding to adopt a neutral policy "without prejudice to the rights, claims, and positions of either party". Eventually, Israeli independence was achieved following the liquidation of the former British-administered Mandate of Palestine, the departure of the British and a war between the Jews in
Mandatory Palestine
and five Arab state armies. The Jewish claim for Palestine as the "Jewish homeland" can be seen as an example of irredentism, as the claim was based on ancient ancestral inhabitance, as well as theologically rooted in a Mosaic cosmogony. Proponents of the formation, expansion, or defense of Israel, who subscribe to these historical or theological justifications, are sometimes called "Zionists". It should also be noted that
Mandatory Palestine
had sizable Jewish
and Arab
populations before the Second World War.

The
West Bank
(known in Israel as Judea
and Samaria (see
Judea and Samaria Area)
and Gaza areas, previously annexed by Jordan and occupied by Egypt respectively, were controlled by Israel from the 1967 Six-Day War
until August 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza. Israel never explicitly claimed any of the West Bank for its own state except the city of Jerusalem, which it unilaterally annexed in 1980. However, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have migrated
to these disputed territories which incurs criticism even by some who otherwise support the Jewish state. Gaza, prior to its occupation by Israel from 1967 to 2005, was considered as an occupying power by the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, and some countries and international organizations. (See
Israeli-Occupied Territories.)

The United States does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem and maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. In Jerusalem, the United States maintains two Consulates General as a diplomatic representation to the city of Jerusalem alone, separate from the US's representation to the state of Israel. One of the Consulates General was established before the 1967 war, and one building, on what was the Israeli side, was just recently built. However, Congress passed the
Jerusalem Embassy Act
in 1995, which says that the US shall move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but allows the president
to delay the move every year if it is deemed contrary to national security interests. Since 1995, every president has delayed the move every year to date based on this clause.

Since their founding, both Korean states have disputed the legitimacy of the other.
South Korea's constitution claims jurisdiction over the entire Korean peninsula. It acknowledges the
division of Korea
only indirectly by requiring the president to work for reunification. The Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces, established in 1949, is the South Korean authority charged with the administration of Korean territory north of the
Military Demarcation Line
(i.e., North Korea), and consists of the governors of the five provinces, who are appointed by the President. However the body is purely symbolic and largely tasked with dealing Northern defectors- if reunification were to actually occur the Committee would be dissolved and new administrators appointed by the
Ministry of Unification.[15]

North Korea's constitution also stresses the importance of reunification, but, while it makes no similar formal provision for administering the South, it effectively claims its territory as it does not
diplomatically recognise
the Republic of Korea, deeming it an "entity occupying the Korean territory".

Greater Albania[16]
or Ethnic Albania
as called by the Albanian nationalists themselves,[17]
is an irredentist
concept of lands outside the borders of the Republic of Albania
which are considered part of a greater national homeland by most Albanians,[18]
based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas. The term incorporates claims to Kosovo, as well as territories in the neighbouring countries
Montenegro,
Greece
and the Republic of Macedonia. Albanians themselves mostly use the term
ethnic Albania
instead.[17]
According to the Gallup Balkan Monitor
2010 report, the idea of a Greater Albania is supported by the majority of Albanians in Albania (63%), Kosovo (81%) and the Republic of Macedonia (53%).[18][19]
In 2012, as part of the celebrations for Albania's 100th anniversary of independence, Prime Minister Sali Berisha spoke of "Albanian lands" stretching from
Preveza
in Greece to Presevo
in Serbia, and from the Macedonian capital of Skopje
to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, angering Albania's neighbors. The comments were also inscribed on a parchment that will be displayed at a museum in the city of Vlore, where the country's independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared in 1912.[20]

Some of the most violent irredentist conflicts of recent times in
Europe
flared up as a consequence of the break-up of the former Yugoslavian
federal state in the early 1990s.[dubious–
discuss][clarification needed]
The conflict erupted further south with the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo
seeking to switch allegiance to the adjoining state of Albania.[21]

Following the
Greek War of Independence
in 1821-1832, Greece
gradually annexed areas which were occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Such was the annexation of Thessaly, a failed war against Turkey in 1897 and the
Balkan Wars. After World War I, Greece launched an unsuccessful
campaign
to annex the Aegean coast of Asia Minor
from Turkey, basing her claim on the predominance there of
Ionian
Greeks since antiquity, and by more recent Greek rule of Asia Minor by the Byzantine Empire
for centuries before the arrival of Ottoman Turks. Another Greek irredentist claim includes North Epirus
(currently a part of Albania), where a sizable Greek minority lives, predating the formation of independent
Albania. Another important open issue for Greeks of the Mainland and of Cyprus is the annexation of
Northern Cyprus, which has been occupied since the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
in 1974.

From 1937 until 1999,
Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland
provided that "[t]he national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland". However, "[p]ending the re-integration of the national territory", the powers of the state were restricted to legislate only for the area that had ceded from the United Kingdom. Arising from the
Northern Ireland peace process, the matter was mutually resolved in 1998. The
Republic of Ireland's constitution was altered by
referendum
and its territorial claim to Northern Ireland
was suspended. The amended constitution asserts that while it is the entitlement of "every person born in the island of Ireland ... to be part of the Irish Nation" and to hold Irish citizenship, "a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island." Certain joint policy and executive bodies
were created between Northern Ireland, the part of the island that remained in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, and these were given executive authority. The advisory and consultative role of the government of Ireland in the government of Northern Ireland granted by the United Kingdom, that had begun with the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, was maintained, although that Agreement itself was ended. The two states also settled the long-running
dispute concerning their respective names:
Ireland
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with both governments agreeing to use those names.

Portugal
does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza, ceded under coercion to Spain during the
Napoleonic Wars.[25]
Since the Rexurdimento
of the mid-nineteenth century, there has been an intellectual movement pleading for the reintegration
between Portugal
and the region of Galicia, under Spanish sovereignty. Although this movement has become increasingly popular on both sides of the border, there is no consensus in regard to the nature of such
reintegration: whether political, socio-cultural or merely linguistic.

The Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014 based on a claim of protecting the ethnically Russian peoples residing there. Crimea was part of Russia from 1783-1954 (1991), and Ukraine from 1954 (1991) to February 2014. Russia declared Crimea to be part of the Russian Federation in March 2014 and effective administration commenced. The Russian regional status is not currently recognised by the United Nations General Assembly and by many countries.

South-Eastern Ukraine, and Coastal Ukraine. As NovoRossiya, a term used in Tsarist Russia for the South Eastern part of today´s Ukraine.

Pan-Serbism or
Greater Serbia
sees the creation of a Serb land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation, and regions outside of Serbia that are populated mostly by Serbs. This movement's main ideology is to unite all Serbs (or all
historically ruled or Serb populated lands) into one
state, claiming, depending on the version, different areas of many surrounding countries.

Spain maintains a claim on
Gibraltar, which has been British since the 17th Century. During World War II, the Spanish Falangist media agitated for irredentism claiming for Spain the French Navarre, French Basque Country and Roussillon (French Catalonia) as well.
Morocco
makes similar claims against Spain over the North African
enclaves of Ceuta
and Melilla.

A unique situation exists with that of
Berwick. Part of the citizenry of the town support the transfer of Berwick to Scotland, although others would prefer it to remain as part of the English county of
Northumberland.[26]
However, due to the nature of the political union between Scotland
and England
forming the UK
the reunification of Berwick goes largely unpursued. Various debates have arisen surrounding the constitutional future of Berwick, or Berwick-upon-Tweed
as it is known in England, but have been largely academic.

Irredentism is acute in the Caucasus region, too. The
Nagorno-Karabakh
movement's original slogan of miatsum
('union') was explicitly oriented towards unification with Armenia, feeding an Azerbaijani understanding of the conflict as a bilateral one between itself and an irredentist Armenia.[27][28][29][30][31]
According to Prof. Thomas Ambrosio, "Armenia's successful irredentist project in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan" and "From 1992 to the cease-fire in 1994, Armenia encountered a highly permissive or tolerant international environment that allowed its annexation of some 15 percent of Azerbaijani territory".[32]
In the view of Nadia Milanova, Nagorno-Karabakh represents a combination of separatism and irredentism.[33]

The Lebanese nationalism goes even further and incorporates irredentist views going beyond the Lebanese borders, seeking to unify all the lands of ancient
Phoenicia
around present day Lebanon. This comes from the fact that present day Lebanon, the Mediterranean coast of Syria, and northern Israel is the area that roughly corresponds to ancient Phoenicia and as a result the majority of the Lebanese people identify with the ancient Phoenician population of that region.[34]
The proposed Greater Lebanese country includes Lebanon, Mediterranean coast of
Syria, and northern
Israel.

Irredentism is one of the reasons China insisted on assuming sovereignty over
Hong Kong
and Macau, as the physical land on which Hong Kong and Macau stand used to be part of Pre-Communist China, a different entity than the China of today. Before the founding, settling, and building of the two territories by the British and the Portuguese, respectively. Hong Kong has much in common culturally with the UK, and many of the residents fled China in search of a better, free, unoppressed like in British Hong Kong. Today, the majority of Hong Kongers would rather Hong Kong be British again according to recent polls by the
South China Morning Post
and others.

The 1909
Gando Convention
addressed a territory dispute between China and Joseon Korea
in China's favor. Both Korean states now accept the convention border as an administrative boundary. However, because the convention was made by the occupying Empire of Japan,
South Korea
has disputed its legality and some Koreans claim that Korea extends into de facto
PRC territory, viz. Dandong
and Liaoning. The most ambitious claims include all parts of
Manchuria
that the Goguryeo
kingdom controlled. South Korea administers the Liancourt Rocks, which Japan has claimed since the end of the Second World War.

Greater Bangladesh is an assumption of several Indian intellectuals that the neighboring country of Bangladesh has an aspiration to unite all Bengali dominated regions under their flag. These include the states of
West Bengal,
Tripura
and Assam
as well as the Andaman Islands
which are currently part of India and the Burmese Arakan Province. The theory is principally based on a widespread belief amongst Indian masses that a large number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants reside in Indian territory. It is alleged that illegal immigration is actively encouraged by some political groups in Bangladesh as well as the state of Bangladesh to convert large parts of India's northeastern states and West Bengal into Muslim-majority areas that would subsequently seek to separate from India and join Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Scholars have reflected that under the guise of anti-Bangladeshi immigrant movement it is actually an anti-Muslim agenda pointed towards Bangladeshi Muslims by false propaganda and widely exaggerated claims on immigrant population. In a 1998, Lieutenant General S.K. Sinha, then the Governor of Assam claimed that massive illegal immigration from Bangladesh was directly linked with "the long-cherished design of Greater Bangladesh.

Irredentism is commonplace in
Africa
due to the political boundaries of former European colonial nation-states passing through ethnic boundaries, and recent declarations of independence after civil war. For example, some Ethiopian nationalist circles still claim the former Ethiopian province of Eritrea
(internationally recognized as the independent State of Eritrea in 1993 after a 30-year civil war).

There are Russian groups who want Russia to take back
Alaska
(which was formerly Russian America). A Russian Orthodox organization, the
Pchyolki, called for the return of Alaska in 2013, arguing first of all that the original sale was not legally valid (since the United States reportedly agreed to pay Russia in gold, but instead sent a cheque), and second of all that the legalization of
gay marriage
in the United States meant that the U. S. was not honouring its pledge to allow Alaskans to practice their religion.[41][42]
Under Alaska Ballot Measure 2
in 1998, however, same-sex marriage was illegal in Alaska[43]
at that time. Same-sex marriage was, however, authorised by the courts
on 12-Oct-2014.

Following the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, several Russian groups and individuals began advocating for the reclaimation of
Alaska. A petition appeared on the official White House website demanding the return of Alaska to Russia, receiving around 42,000 signatures. Russian President
Vladimir Putin
was even asked a question on the subject by a woman during an annual question and answer television segment; Putin dismissed the idea saying Alaska was "too cold" and Russia already had enough cold places. However, in October of that year, Putin's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin
wrote a foreward for a a book called Alaska Betrayed and Sold: The History of a Palace Conspiracy. The book alleges that the original sale of Alaska was filled with "outright lies". Rogozin himself claimed that the sale was a "betrayal of Russian power status". He further stated that Russia had a "right to reclaim our lost colonies". Rogozin is the highest ranking member of the Russian government to make such a claim.

Jump up
^"Chapter Two:Border Clashes in Aztlán".
International Studies Association.
University of Arizona. Retrieved
28 February
2012.
Some leaders, particularly during the early years of El Movimiento, were political nationalists who advocated the secession of the Southwest from the Anglo-republic of the United States of America, if not fully, at least locally with regard to Chicano self-determination in local governance, education, and means of production.

Willard, Charles Arthur 1996 —
Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy," Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ISBN 0-226-89845-8,
ISBN 978-0-226-89845-2; OCLC 260223405